The Legacy of Failure
by Cir Sith
Summary: In the six weeks that elapsed between Revelations and EoN, Will struggles with his responsibilities as Magnus’s protégé and gains insight from an unlikely source. Helen/Nikola friendship.


The Legacy of Failure

No copyright infringement intended. Sanctuary does not belong to me, although I am grateful for the wonderful imagination of its creators. This is the first fanfiction I've ever posted. I never intended to post any, but I enjoy abusing poor Nikola too much, sorry.

----------

Dr. Will Zimmerman was not pleased. And while he ordinarily strove to understand and rationalize his feelings, he was presently finding it far too satisfying to avoid any self-analysis. Particularly, he grumbled vindictively to himself, seeing as how the object of his irritation was unlikely to respond to any form of rationality herself.

Will was the first to admit that he admired Helen Magnus more than any being, human or abnormal, that he had ever encountered. Brilliant, witty, beautiful, and compelling with the allure of experiences beyond his most vivid imaginings, she was a true role model and mentor from whom he was proud to learn.

But once she had committed herself to a course of action, woe betide the man—valued protégé or otherwise—who sought to sway her. Even if the plans to which she had committed herself consisted of charging headlong into every nest of Cabal agents from Old City to Antarctica, with her only support an erstwhile mass murderer with questionable sanity.

And, Will further admitted to himself, it didn't help that he himself was the sole party responsible for his mentor's harebrained crusade. He had had all of the clues laid out before him, but he hadn't been able to solve the mystery in time. Watson would have been able to, if his life hadn't been cut so abruptly short. But he, for all of Magnus's belief in his profiling abilities and all of Watson's insistence, had failed. Now Ashley had betrayed them all to the Cabal, and her mother had been left in the position of defending the frightening but beautiful world of the Sanctuaries from her own daughter.

Will came to an abrupt stop in front of his destination. He had searched the Sanctuary from top to bottom—this basement corridor and the door in front of him definitely being located in the latter—in search of his quarry. But she had eluded him thus far, forcing him to seek her in one of the last places in this vast complex that he preferred to venture.

Because if Druitt frightened him, with all his past history of exploring the limits of human cruelty and depravity, the man inside the lab before him evoked a far more primal human fear, of the creatures that lurk in the darkest shadows of the night. And it disturbed him all the more that such a creature was concealed behind the urbane, if condescending and rather irritating exterior, that had originally led Will to perceive Nikola Tesla as the least imposing of those members of the Five that he had met.

"Come on, Zimmerman. If Magnus seems to think it's safe to have the crazy vampire in the basement playing around with viral genetics, then it is. Course, she does seem to have a soft spot for the guy, but it's not like he's going to use you as a midnight snack. Probably."

Secure in his resolve, Will pushed open the laboratory door, then stopped in confusion. Slightly humiliated at the prospect that he had nerved himself to enter what was in fact the wrong room, he surveyed the pristine table in its center and the immaculately arrayed containment hood beyond. It seemed that not only was his mentor not present, but the presumed object of his trepidation was as well.

"Anyone here? Hello?" Pursing his lips in frustration, Will turned to leave, consigning himself to returning to Magnus's study and taking up residence there until she appeared. She'd have to visit her rooms at some point before departing, and he'd be presented with the opportunity to deter her from forging off into even more danger than usual.

Sudden movement in a shadowed corner of the apparently deserted laboratory sent his heart pounding into overdrive, and Will groped futilely for the gun that he had become accustomed to carrying during his excursions outside the Sanctuary. He released a sigh of relief as Tesla emerged from the darkened alcove, but his face rapidly morphed into a scowl at the errant scientist's dramatics.

"Dr. Zimmerman, I presume. So glad you could drop by. Considering your occupation, though, I must admit I'm surprised to find you still so frightened of things that go bump in the night."

"Not in the mood, Tesla." The normally mild-mannered psychiatrist practically growled, his nerves set on edge by the scientist's infuriating amusement at his fright. "I came looking for Magnus. Obviously she's not here, so I'll just be on my way."

Pausing only to retrieve a half-full glass of wine from amidst the central table's neatly arranged scientific equipment, Tesla crossed the room to perch on the edge of a large, wheeled carrying container.

"My dear William, leaving so soon? You put my hospitality to shame." He placed the hand not holding the wineglass theatrically over his heart.

Tesla's assumed distress hardly gave Will pause, but the striking weariness that marked his features did. The inventor's usually upright posture was slumped, and his face—despite the fiendish grin—seemed drawn, with dark shadows beneath his eyes. Not abnormal for any human who'd barely been seen outside his laboratory for almost two weeks, but decidedly so for a half-vampire.

His curiosity aroused, Will turned to face his mentor's colleague.

"It doesn't seem as though you'll be around long enough to extend your hospitality. Planning on going somewhere?" Will tilted his head towards the carrying case, and Tesla placed a hand almost fondly upon its surface.

"Ah, ever the astute observer. Yes, I've finished developing a cure for the Lazarus virus. I know, I know," Tesla protested without the slightest attempt at modesty, "it's only been two weeks, but genius always surpasses the expectation of mere mortals."

He paused, glancing conspiratorially at Will.

"And I hear that Helen's traipsing off tomorrow with Druitt as well. Which means that you'll be in charge here. Up for the responsibility of heading the largest Sanctuary in the world?"

Tesla's tone left no doubt that he sincerely questioned Will's abilities in this regard. Bristling at the insinuation, Will was almost too distracted to notice either the scientist's need to steady himself against the wall as he stood or the slight hesitation before he pushed away from its support. But Will was far too attuned to the minutiae of human behavior, and his eyebrows lowered in concern as Tesla breezed past him through the door of the laboratory. Shaking his head, Will moved to follow.

"Honestly, I don't suppose I really am ready, but it's not like I can refuse Magnus. The Big Guy's still in confinement, and Watson would have been able to take over for her, but he's gone now too." Will pressed the elevator call button, and turned to find Tesla with arms crossed and head cocked to the side, considering him carefully.

"Leadership by default, hmm? Not very reassuring. Remind me to remove anything of value from my room before I go, I'm not certain the Sanctuary will still be standing when I get back. Of course, Helen must be confident in you abilities, unless," and here he arched an eyebrow in question, "she sees a little too much of James in you? Thinks you're up to the task because you remind her of Jimmy, oh dear."

Will scowled, unable to formulate a reply to a fear that had lurked in the back of his own mind since Magnus had informed him of her decision to place the Sanctuary in his care. He barely noticed the arrival of the elevator, and nearly missed its departure as well. He scrambled inside just as the ancient metal doors groaned closed, glancing to his side where Tesla stood apparently unperturbed, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Sir James Watson." His companion continued. "Greatest mind of two centuries. Poor Jimmy, he never really forgave himself, for failing to identify his closest friend as a cold-blooded murderer."

Will froze at the apparent non sequitur.

"Oh yes, it very nearly consumed him, you know. Of course, it always haunted him, made him more careful, but it didn't consume him. But that's a story for another day, and now its bedtime for all the little kiddies." He grinned wickedly at Will, who grit his teeth in frustration at the scientist's implications.

He didn't think Magnus would be terribly pleased if he decked her pet vampire before he'd even taken over leadership of the Sanctuary.

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Mean? Why nothing at all. Can't I simply reminisce fondly over the tribulations and triumphs of a dear departed friend?"

"You? No."

"Ah, I'm hurt by your callousness. But I'll bid you a good night regardless, my dear Watson."

Will was left standing in the open entrance to the elevator as the scientist calmly strolled down the corridor towards the guest rooms. Shaking his head once more at the man's exasperating antics, he set off in the opposite direction, intending to return to Magnus's study and beard the lion in its den.

It was only as he glanced back over his shoulder that he noticed his erstwhile companion leaning heavily against the corridor wall as he inserted his key. His earlier concerns resurfacing, Will realized that there was one further topic of conversation to broach with Magnus.

----------

Dr. Helen Magnus pushed the door open softly, the old hinges emitting a barely audible groan as she did so. Will held his breath as he peered around her shoulder, but the view he received as his mentor moved forward into the room relieved him of any fear that their intrusion would have disturbed the room's occupant.

Tesla was sprawled in an armchair across the room, dead to the world. The soft yellow light cast by the reading lamp gracing the table next to the chair highlighted the deep hollows beneath his eyes. It was a far more vulnerable position than Will supposed the man had ever expected to find himself viewed in unawares, and the psychiatrist's sheer fascination with the scene almost caused him to miss his mentor's reaction to it.

Magnus had located a woolen throw folded at the foot of the neatly made bed. Carefully unfolding it, she moved to the chairside table and removed from its precarious perch on the edge a brimming glassful of red wine, its ruby surface sparkling in the lamplight. Then, with more tenderness than Will had ever seen her show, even towards Ashley, she laid the throw gently over her colleague and one-time friend. She lingered for a moment, gazing with an unreadable look at the scientist's weary countenance, rendered more peaceful—and younger, somehow—by sleep.

Will was familiar with occupying the position of observer, but the tableau unfolding before him evoked uncomfortable feelings of voyeurism even in a professional whose job required him to observe and analyze the behavior of others. Magnus's hand, seemingly of its own accord, reached out as if to brush back the inventor's unruly shock of dark hair. Will lowered his eyes, prepared to leave, but Magnus turned and smiled gently at him. Withdrawing her hand, she walked softly across the room and pulled the door quietly shut behind her.

"Is he alright?"

Sighing exasperatedly, Magnus shook her head in the negative, but her response reassured him.

"He'll be fine. I wish he weren't leaving tomorrow though."

As they began walking back down the hallway towards the elevator, she caught Will's questioning glance and continued.

"Nikola's a scientist at heart, no matter what he has become. We all were, we all had to be, to take the ultimate risk and potentially sacrifice our own lives in the pursuit of knowledge. Give him a problem and he will try to solve it, to push the boundaries beyond where they've ever been before. Unfortunately," she grinned ruefully, "he's always thought he's indestructible, and the results of our experiments with the source blood haven't helped any."

Will almost froze in the middle of the hallway, suddenly struck by the similarity between his earlier exasperation with Magnus and her current fond aggravation with the welfare of her old friend. Grinning, he turned to his mentor with barely a misstep.

"Are you certain that's all that's driven Tesla to cloister himself in that lab for two weeks, living off wine and cobwebs, or whatever he actually eats, Magnus? Certain," and now he did stop and turn to face her, "that it's not you that he did it for?"

Magnus, as usual, took her protégé's theorizing in stride, pausing herself and turning her full attention to Will. He would have thought they were standing in the hallway, calmly discussing a new case that had arisen within the Sanctuary's purview, had not he noticed a brief hesitation before she replied. She looked briefly off over his shoulder, as if recalling some place or experience in her memories, before shaking her head minutely.

"Brilliant he may claim to be, and is, but I never would have thought Nikola Tesla capable of that, Will. The pursuit of knowledge, the challenge of outwitting the competition, even the simple will to survive, those things would drive him to defeat the Cabal at their own game and discover a cure for the Lazarus virus."

She laid a hand on his arm.

"But he is a friend, in a way, and he will not pay attention to his own welfare when he's caught up in pursuing some goal. Heaven only knows how he managed to survive sixty years on his own. Watch out for him, will you?" She smiled. "And, in return, I shall take the utmost care on my own journey."

Will sighed, watching as Magnus turned away towards the elevator and, he presumed her study. She had him there. If keeping an eye on Tesla meant that Magnus would take an extra measure of caution in her dealings with the Cabal, then that was a duty he was more than willing to undertake.

----------

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Who'd want to be wandering around knocking on doors in this weather, looks like it's about to start raining cats and dogs. Probably will, considering this place. They'd better have fixed that leak in the roof by now, because I'd really hate to tell Magnus that the plesiosaur ended up in the attic again while she was gone."

Will's irascible mutterings had taken him to the front door, and he pulled it open with rather more force than necessary, flinching in anticipation of the storm's initial raindrops. Yet none had begun to fall, and the only sight that greeted him was a magnificent vista of the Old City, lights brightening against the ominous slate grey clouds. But, with four weeks having sped by since Magnus's departure and the workload growing heavier by the day, he certainly didn't have the luxury of stopping to enjoy the view.

Besides, it was far too inhospitable out to do so. Frowning, Will searched the front steps from within the foyer's relative warmth, unwilling to venture out into the grueling wind he could hear whistling against the Sanctuary's façade. He was about to turn back inside, disgruntled by his fruitless trek downstairs, when he heard the soft cough and leaned out to scan the entirety of the stone step.

"Tesla! What are you doing? Damn it, Magnus is going to kill me."

Will certainly had no reason to fear the half-vampire now, at any rate. Satchel leaning against the stone wall beside him, the scientist seemed to be practically asleep on his feet, the only support preventing him from slumping to the floor the ornate door against which he had propped himself. The bruises beneath his eyes had darkened, and his coat seemed to hang far more loosely from his wiry frame than Will remembered. He didn't rouse until Will placed a hand under his elbow and tugged him away from the door, and the half-lidded eyes that he turned to the psychiatrist seemed to hold only confusion and a complete lack of recognition.

"Who are you? Not exactly my type, really." The inventor tried to pull away from Will, but succeeded only in listing against the doorframe.

Grimacing, Will managed to retrieve Tesla's satchel and regain his hold on the man's arm, steering him away from the door and closing it behind them against the coming gale.

"Listen, Tesla, I'm not trying to come on to you, I'm trying to get you inside so you don't drown or get zapped by a bolt of lightening out there."

Seeing how the man's eyes lit up at the latter prospect, even in his current state, Will pushed him rapidly towards the elevator. He was reasonably certain that the scientist wasn't going to manage the stairs right now, and he wanted to get him safely ensconced in his room before calling Magnus for some advice.

Tesla eyed Will more closely, and Will thought he saw a spark of recognition. He hoped that was what it was, at any rate, as opposed to a desire for a human snack.

"Ah, the protégé, I remember. Smart, but not overly so, obedient, easily trainable. Everything you'd want in a successor. Or a puppy." Will managed to direct his charge into the elevator, wincing as Tesla staggered against the wall and slumped back against it.

Slightly winded, Will leaned back against the cool metal surface opposite and eyed his mentor's colleague with increasing concern. The man's eyes were closed, and his long fingers gripped the wall on either side of him as if they were the only things preventing his collapse.

"Tesla, what the hell happened? I heard that it was close, that we just managed to finish the distribution before the virus spread beyond our control, but the Sanctuaries I spoke to said that everything had gone off without a hitch."

"Is Helen home?" Eyes still firmly closed, Tesla either hadn't heard his question or had chosen to avoid it, hard to tell which. "No? I'd so hoped to see her, considering that I just spent the last month playing delivery service-cum-doctor to every Sanctuary we have. Not an easy task, let me assure you, with the dastardly Cabal breathing down our necks and no white chargers to be found."

"Tesla, damn it." Will recoiled when the man's eyes shot open, staring at him with such intensity that he felt a spike of fear, though their irises remained their normal grey-green.

"You do not want to know how it really was, Dr. Zimmerman. Dying left and right, Sanctuaries unable to offer anything but sedatives and basic supplies to the families of those affected, families they turned away from their gates lest they loose the virus amongst them. One of the Sanctuaries, I can't remember which, the Cabal had tested an alternative virus. Not as pathogenic, but we had to begin almost from scratch with creating a cure, in a facility far inferior to this. Hard to imagine that's even possible, I know."

The half-vampire sneered with a hint of his familiar arrogance, and Will cringed. But it was Tesla's next statement, uttered so softly that he barely heard it but with soul-wrenching anguish, that stunned him completely.

" And the entire time, knowing the Cabal was attempting to alter the virus further, knowing that they possessed the capability to disseminate it worldwide at any moment, when _she_ was out there somewhere. No access to the cure, if the Cabal managed to alter it and neither she nor Druitt possessed immunity. All alone."

Completely stunned by the complete despair in that admission, and by the identity of its speaker, Will nearly failed to lunge forward quickly enough to catch Tesla as he broke off in a paroxysm of coughing, collapsing almost completely to the floor of the elevator. As soon as the doors grated open, Will slung the scientist's arm over his shoulder and half-carried, half-guided him to the door of the room in which the scene between Magnus and his companion had played out so many weeks ago.

Grand job he'd done of fulfilling his mentor's injunction to watch out for her old friend. First Watson, now Magnus. It seemed that every task set to him was beyond his ability to complete. But he didn't have time for either self-pity or self-analysis right now. Perhaps there was still time to redeem his promise to Magnus.

Panting with the effort, he deposited his charge in the room's armchair and gently shook the man's shoulder. Tesla's eyes barely opened, but at least there was still recognition in them.

"Can you eat? You don't," and here Will hesitated, then plowed on, "need human blood, do you?"

Tesla snarled, but either didn't desire to reveal his vampiric side or lacked the ability to do so.

"I promised her that I'd never feed on humans, and that's a vow I intend to keep. As for anything more substantial," he grimaced, looking decidedly nauseated. "That's not a very good idea right now, assuming you'd prefer it actually remain ingested. If you'd really like to be of assistance—for reasons beyond my understanding, by the way—just toddle off and let me sleep, there's a good dog."

But Will hesitated, unconvinced, his instincts as both a doctor and an observer of human beings preventing his simple acquiescence.

"I'm not going to hang upside down from the rafters until you leave, you know," Tesla growled with something less than his usual acerbity, but the psychiatrist remained undeterred.

"I'm not that easy to get rid of, Tesla." He ignored the muttered "shame" that his companion, eyes again closed, directed at him. "Sleep, then food, and no wandering off. Do I have your word?"

The reply, when it came, was barely audible.

"You have it, Dr. Zimmerman." Will nodded, watching as the scientist's careworn features smoothed into the repose of sleep and his breathing deepened and steadied.

Then he turned and, closing the door behind him, went to find Henry and have him place a call to Magnus, wherever she was.

----------

Helen Magnus paused, one hand laid against the rough wooden surface of the door before her, the other surreptitiously smoothing the edge of her jacket. She'd taken time to change from the ill-used traveling clothes she'd arrived in, knowing with an awareness borne of long familiarity that her fellow scientist would scarcely appreciate the dust and sand they'd have introduced to his meticulous demesne.

But though several days had elapsed since Will's frantic call, she remembered his concern strongly enough that the basement laboratory was her most immediate destination upon returning home.

"Nikola. I heard what happened. You did well, thank you."

At first glance, her concern seemed unfounded, and Magnus breathed a soft sigh of relief. Her old friend was bent over a confusing tangle of wires and metal casings, fingers moving dexterously amidst the softly blinking lights and twisted filaments.

Yet when Tesla's eyes left his work and sought out her face, his own lighting with his characteristic impudent grin, she was forced to acknowledge that Will must have been indeed concerned. Shadows still lingered under bright eyes in a still too thin face, and, if this was how the inventor looked after several days of rest and good food, she didn't want to imagine the state he'd been in when he'd shown up at the Sanctuary. At any rate, he certainly seemed to have regained his typical annoying, if at times endearing, demeanor.

"What an honor, that the great Helen Magnus should grace this lowly hovel with her presence." He leered unashamedly at her, before returning his eyes to the work before him. "Does this mean you'll kiss me again?"

"I'm not even going to answer that, Nikola." She leaned closer to the table, careful lest he decide to ignore her implied refusal. "What are you working on?"

"Hmm. Well, it's your loss, really." Magnus winced as the component he was holding emitted a series of brilliant sparks, but Tesla didn't seem to notice as they cascaded over his hands. "Theoretically, the hematogenous factors present in individuals altered by the source blood should render those individuals susceptible to incapacitation by an electromagnetic field of appropriate frequency."

"Unfortunately," and now he did grimace as the component emitted an acrid puff of smoke and went dark, "it's all _very_ theoretical right now. Any luck with your search?"

Startled by the abrupt change in topic, she paused, a look of sorrow replacing the smile that had warmed her features at her colleague's engineering woes.

"No, nothing. It's as if she's become a ghost." Her voice, barely above a whisper, wavered in its usual warm strength.

Tesla's head remained bowed over the now dark metallic creation before him, and his own voice softened.

"Helen." Then his hands resumed their sure dance over the twisted wires.

"Go on, I'm sure your protégé would love the opportunity to update you on everything that's happened while you were gone. If you can retrieve him from the throes of young love, that is." His hand swept once over the table and its contents. "Theory shouldn't be too hard to turn into reality. Genius here, after all."

Still benumbed by her own sorrow, Magnus turned blindly to go, nodding in acquiescence. Then she paused, cocked her head thoughtfully, and with a decisiveness more reminiscent of her usual personality, turned back to her old friend and reached out to grasp his wrist. Knowing Tesla's revulsion for being touched, she'd expected him to recoil, but he seemed too startled to do so.

"No, Nikola, not this time. You need to get out of this basement before you do start sleeping in a coffin and wearing a cloak, and I haven't eaten since yesterday. Join me for dinner? Please?"

She knew she'd made the right decision when he flashed her his most charming grin, eyes sparkling, and bowed with a gallantry she'd not encountered for decades.

"As my lady commands. Lead on, fair Helen."

----------

Will Zimmerman strode along the corridors of the Sanctuary, thankful for the thick glass windowpanes that kept out the wind and rain lashing against the Sanctuary's formidable walls. The glass sconces lining the hallway cast a warm yellow light that lent his new home a cozy and decidedly domestic feel this night, and, but for the absence of a very important member of his adopted family, Will would have confessed that he felt more at home than he had since before his mother's death.

But it seemed that their close-knit family, almost complete again, was about to be fractured once more. Magnus, despite having arrived only today, was departing again tomorrow with Druitt to speak with an agent of the Cabal who had just been located in Cairo. Will was hoping to wish her good hunting, and to make sure she had no further instructions for the operation of the Sanctuary in her absence.

His steps slowed as he approached her door, but the hand he raised to knock against it was stalled by the sound of voices within.

"Of all the ridiculous notions. Scientists today seem so regretfully closed-minded, so focused on their own discipline that they fail to see the common threads uniting all fields of study. How you can sit there and listen to something like that, Helen…"

"Oh, I don't know, it certainly reminds me of that theory you and James proposed at Oxford. I remember the catastrophic results of the experiment you two attempted to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, as well."

"Helen, we were practically children."

"You were awfully certain of yourselves at the time."

Her companion's disgruntled mutterings were indecipherable to Will, still frozen at his mentor's door. He raised his hand again to knock in the ensuing silence, but stilled as he heard the conversation within resume briefly, albeit in a far softer tone.

"You know, it is beautiful. The lights, they're so like the stars, hiding a thousand tiny worlds in the darkness. So many lives, each in its own unique orbit. I can almost see why you remain so fascinated by them, after all these decades."

Afraid to disturb the long silence that followed, Will finally pushed gently against the door, leaning cautiously around its edge.

His mentor sat in the armchair facing him, shadows gathering around her flowing dark hair, an enigmatic smile on her face. Tesla was ensconced in the corner of the couch opposite her, their knees nearly brushing. He seemed completely oblivious to Will's intrusion, either asleep or hypnotized by the dancing light of the fire that burned in front of him. Other than the merrily crackling flames, the only light in the room came from the brilliant and colorful lights of the Old City, flickering in the rain outside the windows.

Suddenly, Will wished nothing more than to leave undisturbed the nostalgic camaraderie that he sensed to be present. He nodded awkwardly at Magnus, wondering how to withdraw without prompting her to either recall or follow him. Raising his hand in a gesture half plea for her to remain seated and half benediction for her coming journey, Will whispered a farewell scarcely distinguishable from the soft susurrations of the rain against the windows.

"Good luck."

But Magnus, as he'd somehow expected, seemed to understand him perfectly. She smiled at him, returning his nod with a graceful inclination of her head. Then, unexpectedly, she turned her gaze to the man seated opposite her, and the warmth of the affection in that gaze left Will stunned. He felt as though he himself had suddenly experienced the revival of a friendship lost for so many years, fractured seemingly beyond repair by a vicious circle of betrayal and mistrust.

Magnus's whispered reply to him, although easily interpretable as a response to his fare wishes for her coming journey, was understood by her protégé to mean far more than that.

"Thank you, Will."

His thoughts still in chaos, Will withdrew, closing the heavy door on the scene behind him. Seemingly of their own accord, his feet began to carry him away from Magnus's study, though he had assigned them no conscious destination.

It seemed that Magnus had not summarily dismissed his suggestion that her colleague's work was driven by something more than mere intellectual curiosity. Of course, considering Tesla's manifest concern for Magnus's wellbeing during the Lazarus virus outbreak, Will had no doubts that the man was genuinely motivated by a desire to protect her, both physically and emotionally. But since Tesla had presumably confessed that concern unintentionally, and Will had no desire to perish in a back alley as a result of betraying a half-vampire's confidence, he wasn't exactly free to share it with his mentor.

Fortunately, with Will's prompting, his mentor had proven perspicacious enough to discern something of Tesla's true motivations.

"Well done, William," a voice suspiciously reminiscent of a man he had only briefly met but nevertheless admired greatly echoed in his mind.

Will acknowledged that he had failed in the past, and would fail again in the future, but this was not one of those failures. After all, even as a medical professional who specialized in the healing of minds, it wasn't often that he was able to aid in rebuilding a friendship that had been derelict for decades. Dr. Will Zimmerman knew that tomorrow he would resume the responsibility of temporarily heading the largest Sanctuary in the world, but, for tonight, he was quite pleased.


End file.
